• "The main thing is that the consultants really understand the context of Southern corrections. Southern states are some of the poorest states, and the solutions have to take that into context and consideration."

That's according to Andie Moss, a former prison employee in Georgia and head of the consulting firm paid $500,000 to help fix the situation at Alabama's Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women.

• Calling it an issue no "Republican governors or governors in general talk about very much," Gov. Robert Bentley said prison reform is a top priority as the occupancy rate hits 190 percent.

AL.com reporter Lucy Berry in Huntsville reported that Bentley said he supports rehabilitation for substance abuse, and said the state may need to stop "putting everybody in prison for every minor drug offense" or consider alternative sentencing as a solution to the problem.

Next week AL.com reporter Casey Toner in Mobile will take a look at how lie detectors are used by prison officials in investigating abuse claims by prisoners.

He'll also talk about the dozens of cases against guards with the assistant district attorney in Elmore County, where Tutwiler is located and the courts hear the charges of abuse.

We'll also have a closer look at medical services provided within Alabama prisons, at inmate complaints about inadequate care for serious conditions and at the painstaking legal process of having those complaints heard outside the prison walls.